Symbols like :) ;) :0?

Please check both image files. Is this a general fix or a problem of Win 7 for a few.

On the toolbar then 

Do you have an add-on that is no longer enabled that used to offer those smilies

Hello Matt, Everything is stock. There are no add-ons and never was. Lightning is not one anymore ? Smiley's were taken after pushing the Write button from the address book.

Lightning is one, it is just distributed with Thunderbird.

Perhaps

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I feel you have had one of these add-ons installed. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/emoji-menu/?src=search https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/emojiaddin/?src=search https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/smilieinserter-plus/?src=search

Thunderbird support for smilies is limited. When you add a emoticon using the "insert a smiley face" list box its actually stored as smiley face (text) characters in the message. Thunderbird displays any smiley face characters as a graphics image while other email clients display the smiley face characters as is. This is a built-in feature enabled by the mail.display_glyph setting and why what you see and other users see may differ. However, if you embed a .GIF file using one of the add-ons everybody sees a graphics image.

You might be right but I don't know how they got installed. I didn't. Maybe it's pre-installed in the installer. First was 45.4 US

 Application Basics

   Name: Thunderbird
   Version: 45.4.0
   User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/45.4.0
   Profile Folder: Show Folder

             (Local drive)
   Application Build ID: 20160928132736
   Enabled Plugins: about:plugins
   Build Configuration: about:buildconfig
   Memory Use: about:memory

 Mail and News Accounts
   account1:
     INCOMING: account1, , (imap) mailer2.acanac.net:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
     OUTGOING: , mailer2.acanac.net:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true

   account2:
     INCOMING: account2, , (none) Local Folders, plain, passwordCleartext

 Crash Reports

 Extensions
   Lightning, 4.7.4, true, {e2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103}

 Important Modified Preferences

   Name: Value

     browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400
     browser.cache.disk.filesystem_reported: 1
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 358400
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false
     browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: false
     dom.apps.reset-permissions: true
     extensions.lastAppVersion: 45.4.0
     font.name.monospace.el: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-cyrillic: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-unicode: Consolas
     font.name.monospace.x-western: Consolas
     font.name.sans-serif.el: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-cyrillic: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-unicode: Calibri
     font.name.sans-serif.x-western: Calibri
     font.name.serif.el: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-cyrillic: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-unicode: Cambria
     font.name.serif.x-western: Cambria
     font.size.fixed.el: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-cyrillic: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-unicode: 14
     font.size.fixed.x-western: 14
     font.size.variable.el: 17
     font.size.variable.x-cyrillic: 17
     font.size.variable.x-unicode: 17
     font.size.variable.x-western: 17
     mail.openMessageBehavior.version: 1
     mail.winsearch.firstRunDone: true
     mailnews.database.global.datastore.id: 488c9e19-c61a-4175-9e21-ede7ee076e1
     network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true
     network.predictor.cleaned-up: true
     places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 104858
     plugin.importedState: true

 Graphics

     Adapter Description: Radeon X1950 Pro
     Vendor ID: 0x1002
     Device ID: 0x7280
     Adapter RAM: Unknown
     Adapter Drivers: atiumd64 atiumdag atiumdva atiumd6a atitmm64
     Driver Version: 8.593.100.0
     Driver Date: 2-10-2010
     Direct2D Enabled: Blocked for your graphics driver version. Try updating your graphics driver to version 9.6 or newer.
     DirectWrite Enabled: false (6.2.9200.17568)
     ClearType Parameters: Gamma: 2200 Pixel Structure: B ClearType Level: 50 Enhanced Contrast: 200
     WebGL Renderer: Blocked for your graphics driver version. Try updating your graphics driver to version 9.6 or newer.
     GPU Accelerated Windows: 0. Blocked for your graphics driver version. Try updating your graphics driver to version 9.6 or newer.

     AzureCanvasBackend: skia
     AzureSkiaAccelerated: 0
     AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: cairo
     AzureContentBackend: cairo

 JavaScript

 Incremental GC: 1

 Accessibility

   Activated: 0
   Prevent Accessibility: 0

 Library Versions

     Expected minimum version
     Version in use

     NSPR
     4.12
     4.12

     NSS
     3.21.1 Basic ECC
     3.21.1 Basic ECC

     NSS Util
     3.21.1
     3.21.1

     NSS SSL
     3.21.1 Basic ECC
     3.21.1 Basic ECC

     NSS S/MIME
     3.21.1 Basic ECC
     3.21.1 Basic ECC

I tried again. Went well to sent folder and inbox but a disaster after forwarding. Problems on two different computer, only similarities is Win7, one is 32 bit and other is 64 bit.

I believe your saying that Emoji 1.3 is a solution to my problem because it's a .GIF file and I will as others always see graphics and less likelihood of incompatibility but still something needs fixing in Thunderbird for embedded style.

I notice that there is a space before the last smillie and that one works as expected.

Just as a test.... Can you repeat the exact same, but this time put a space before each smilie. Please report back on results.

Same problems here. One or two space between smiley's. I wonder if vertical view layout might change things or it's not important right now.